Analysis of clinical and pathological features of chronic hepatitis B patients with hepatic steatosis

Abstract

Objective To analyze the clinical and pathological features of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with hepatic steatosis. Methods Clinical and pathological data of 841 patients with CHB who underwent liver biopsy in Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital during September 2015 to September 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. One hundred and thirty five gender and age-matched pairs of steatosis and non-steatosis patients entered the analysis. Multivariable Logistic regression and rank sum test were used to analyze the clinical features and risk factors of hepatic steatosis in CHB patients. Spearman correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between hepatic steatosis and HBV DNA, hepatic inflammation and fibrosis status. Results Logistic regression analysis showed that overweight/obesity (χ2=3.947, OR=1.436, 95%CI 1.005-2.051, P 0.05). However, hepatic steatosis was negatively correlated with inflammatory grade and fibrosis grade of the liver (r=-0.146 and -0.192, both P<0.05). Conclusions Overweight/obesity and hyperlipidemia are associated with steatosis in CHB patients. Hepatic steatosis may not aggravate the degree of liver inflammation and fibrosis in CHB patients. Key words: Hepatitis B, chronic; Hepatic steatosis; Inflammation of the liver; Fibrosis; Propensity score matching